robknits

Designing my space/Meeting knitters in SA

     With so much going on, and not much time or energy left over at the end of the day, there is lots of blog fodder but few blog posts.  This entry might be of epic proportions or the first of many... I am not sure yet.   Topics to come include:  Designing my space, The Itch, Finding the Inspiration Collection, Why "Studios" was a disappointment, Shelves Bags Shelves Bookcases Hooks Cubbies Rollers, Fiesta, Meeting Local Knitters, and Oops I bought a front loader and suddenly want to make felt coasters.

     Designing my space and Shelves Bags Shelves Bookcases Hooks Cubbies Rollers are, I suppose, the same topic.  As the infinite regression of unpacking rule explains, in order to do something that appears to be simple -- i.e., oh, I think I'll start knitting a scarf -- you discover you have to take care of approximately 6 preliminary actions.  These can include everything from finding which box has the laceweight yarn to building an addition on to the house.  The studio is full of intimidating piles of stuff (see the photos of intimidating piles of stuff) and I needed to figure out how to organize everything.

After much waffling and delaying, I realized that I was trying to create permanent sorts of storage and work areas in a room I had never worked in.  Instead, the room needed modular, movable, redefinable storage.  I moved a couple of units like that (otherwise known as a bookcase and a little shelf unit) into the humungous closet in the studio, and then ran out and bought an inexpensive freestanding garment rack.  Designing a huge closet of built-ins before I lived and worked here??? Nuh uh.  I clambored over and through the boxes til I found the hanging sweater shelves that worked in my last yarn closet, et voila .. began unpacking yarn and tools.  So a bit of progress has been made, and maybe 4 or 5 more boxes were emptied.  I have some more pictures of the developing storage space, but the computer has just informed me it does not recognize the camera, and I am going to leave that problem for another time.

     As mentioned in an earlier, entry, the magazine Studios, a special production of Interweave Press's magazine Cloth Scissors Paper, came out just as I moved and was the first new fiber purchase to come to the new address.  But it was, unfortunately, pretty disappointing. Their solutions and studio designs consisted of lots of white shelving and baskets with contents organized by color.  Well, yes.    There were a couple of good ideas provided by some of the fiber artists they interviewed, but all in all, it was not much help and not even the ads were tempting.  I could have used a good article about lighting, or vacuums for fiber.  Though there was one studio, built in a hayloft, that had me drooling.  So I am working on organizing the yarn closet in modular movable ways, and then, once most of the boxes are empty, I will try to figure out where to put the two tables I have, what kind of lighting I have/need, and ... don't get me started .. the chair issue.

     With help from a new member of the Knitters Review forum, I have gotten back to work on the Free and Easy Pie Wedge shawl, and that's what I took with me when I finally got myself together and went to my first San Antonio knitting group meeting. (See Kim?  I made it.) This group meets EVERY Sunday ( oh bliss) in a wonderful, casual, funky coffee house/wine bar/ brunch-lunch/live music cafe called the Candlelight.  I met Amanda, a serious dyer of yarns with an Etsy store -- www.LoneStarArts.etsy.com -- who was knitting socks, and showed off one of Cookie's Monkey socks. Amanda is also a nuclear engineer.  (Really.)  She also told me that there is a fiber festival, aimed at weavers, spinners and, of course, knitters, in the town of Boerne in the fall.  That's very near here!!!!   Juanita was there, knitting socks from Amanda's yarn.    She is a graphic artist who, in order to test some machinery at work, printed out two decals about knitting that are now among my favorite possessions.  I will scan them when I get the scanner hooked up.   Where would you put a decal that explained that you knit so that you don't kill anyone?  Amy, who is a teacher, was at Candlelight too.  She is close to finishing the fish blanket (these are someone else's fish -- I couldn't find a picture of a finished fish blanket).  Amy started the blanket as a new knitter, which was very brave.  The cafe was great, the knitting was great, the knitters were great and I realized as I drove home that the route took me past Central Market, a Whole Foods kind of place.  So this might be the beginning of a great Sunday routine.

     The itch mentioned above is not medical, thank you very much.  It is a creative itch.  I have ideas galore that I really want to get to.  But the half-done state of the house is depressing, so while I found some of the yarn I have ideas for, and found the needles, I am going to stick to the Free and Easy Pie Wedge shawl and focus the creativity and energy (such as it is) on the house.  It is hard at this point -- I am very ready to be over the process of moving.  And it was very hard not being with family last night for Passover (especially since a series of problems and issues meant they didn't call).  But I just did my first load of laundry in the new washing machine (who would have thought that could be so exciting, but finally, it is here and installed), and I am going to get a LOT more done before bed tonight.  So I can get to that gorgeous purple and copper yarn you can see in the hanging shelves above. 

Moving, Part 3

     Can't call it "on the road" anymore, since I am here.  So here is Moving, Part 3, which is all about pictures.  The very first installation I did when I got here was for cable/cable internet access/and cable phone.  But of course I didn't have a tv with me, and took until just a few minutes ago to resignedly sit down to start a long annoying process of making cable internet access work.  So I plugged in the cable, started the laptop -- and there was the internet.  No installation.  No passwords.  Just. Instant. Internet.  And really really fast internet too.  So... some pictures.

Maggie demanding her lawyer.

Frannie assuming the travel position:

And now, pictures of the house.  As you can seen, these are nude portraits.  My stuff is still somewhere on the road, and while I am in severe sticker shock, having bought appliances for the kitchen yesterday, they have not yet been delivered.

First, a front view, with car.  Looks pretty southwest-ish, doesn't it?  That's pretty satisfying, because in other ways, this house is such a continuation of what has been.  I grew up in Levittown NY, and appear to have moved to the San Antonio version of that.  But as my friend Sabine, who first saw the house with me, noticed, I was immediately comfortable and at home in this house.  Next, a view from the kitchen through a corner of the living room into the family room.  The family room is on the left , with i ts window hidden behind the tree in the picture from the street.

    The kitchen will be very nice, once the sticker-shock inducing appliances and my table arrive.  At the moment it is furnished with some folding chairs and some bags and boxes.  The floor is a large ceramic tile that looks like stone, and the appliances are all stainless.  Once I get over the sticker shock I will replace the old dishwasher you see, the only appliance that came with the house. 

     Now for the living room.  Hmm.  I don't have any living room furniture.  My current stuff will be going into the family room.  On the left, the room added on t o the back of the house that I will be using as a studio.  Those gorgeous French doors open onto a rear deck.  At some point I want to cover the deck.  And I need to buy a grill.  Here's a picture of what you see through the French doors.  This room also has a walk in closet that will be great for organizing all the fiber art materials.  The last picture I have to show today is of another bedroom in the house that is going to be the study/music room.  No pics yet of the room I am using as a bedroom, and of the guest room.   

Well, I am off to find some dinner.  Tomorrow morning I go to work at my new job, and, tomorrow night the refrigerator will be delivered.  I really really want my stuff, and rumor has it the truck will arrive on Tuesday.  And a million thanks to everyone who has called or sent emails or left comments here on the blog!

On the Road 2: Floods and Cats

     In the depths of moving pyschosis, with the tvs unplugged and the cable turned off, I had no clue that a major storm was tracing my route to San Antonio til the morning I left.  The New York Times weather map showed I would be driving along the curved spine of that storm.  That information hardly registered.  I drove in snow flurries, a moment of hail, and some rain to Dayton.  When I left the next day, the rain was worse and the visibility was pretty awful.  As I continued through southern Ohio and into Illinois, I began to notice that there were farm fields that looked like lakes.  Poor farmers, I thought.  Hope that dries out before it's time to plow.  Then farther into Illinois and into Missouri, and I saw telephone poles in the middle of what looked like more lakes.  Water lapped close to the edges of the interstate.  When I spoke to my sister, she mentioned flooding and the rest of the world knocked on my moving-obsessed brain.  The interstates are built on slightly elevated road beds, so those roads were fine but the folks in southern Illinois and Missouri were really hit hard.  I read in today's paper (a San Antonio paper!) that folks in one  Arkansas town whose name I saw on an exit sign are facing evacuation.

     When I left Forrest City AR however, the sun had finally come out and I drove the rest of the way in sunshine.  The trip was long, and I was really tired of hotel stays by night 3, but it worked out really well to spend one more night on the road, and arrive Friday morning, rested and happy, in San Antonio.

     So how did the cats do, you ask? (Well, some of you ask.)  Amazingly well.  Incredibly well.  Each one rode in a carrier on the back seat, with a blankie or towel inside.  No yowling.  No car sickness.  When I arrived at my cousins' home in Dayton, Terry had already set up two LARGE dog crates (used to be used for German shepherds), and we put each cat inside, with a litter box, said blankie, food and water.  That worked well too.  Maggie soon demanded out, and I let her out into the bedroom, but the new room combined with a curious resident cat and dog outside the bedroom door was too much even for my brave Maggie, and she ended up in a defensive position under the bed.  She came to me though, and I put her back in the crate.   Getting Maggie into her carrier the next morning was of course no problem.  Frannie though had decided she was not leaving, and we ended up in a comedy routine with Terry lifting the back of the crate to tip her toward the carrier and Frannie clutching the wiring and hanging by her front paws.  I am sure the howling laughter did not make her more comfortable.  Then, once we got her into the crate, the unlatched door (sorry again Terry) opened, and she ended up under the bed.  But Terry is patient and used to cat behavior, and in another comedy seen we used a foam bolster and a curtain rod and got her into the crate.  Frannie made it clear we were vicious cat abusers.  And traveled the rest of the way in her new travel position.  But the cats were so quiet during the trip that at one rest stop I pulled off to make sure they were still breathing.  I have pictures I will add later.

     Along the road I kept them in hotel bathrooms, with their carriers, blankies and disposable litter boxes, and it was not hard to find pet-friendly hotels.  Having started out in the master bathroom in the house here, they now have the run of my bedroom and one other room.  There is still no furniture, and probably won't be til Tuesday.  Sigh.  I am off to buy appliances, curtain rods, and other exciting things, and have explored enough to find the Starbucks I am in at the moment, the Super Target and Best Buy. 

We interrupt this fiber arts blog...

to bring you The Move.  A few entries will be devoted to packing, traveling from PA to Texas by car, with cats, and unpacking.  This will then once again become a blog devoted to my exploration of the fiber arts.  As soon as I find my stuff.

Packing

So...  I am writing this from Hillsboro TX, south of Dallas.  I am 3 days from State College PA by car, and 3 and a half hours from my new home in San Antonio.  Those last few days of packing up the house were unspeakable.  (Oh wait, I am about to speak about them.) 

First, heartfelt thanks to friends Cheryl, Sara and Linda, who each took the time to come to my house to pack and keep me company.  Their practical help, affection and support made a world of difference.  And they kept coming back for more! Cheryl and Linda brought dinner and cookies. Thanks again.

Those of you who have moved established homes know the level of exhaustion that results.  I think I was on my feet for two weeks straight.  I just could not stay down!  I would sit, dizzy with fatigue, only to leap up a few minutes later having realized I had to deal with X, Y or Z.  The same thing would happen at the end of the day, and it turn an act of will to stay in bed once I got there.  The van arrived Monday at 9, left at about 1 pm (I think) and I was of course on my feet that whole time.  Had to be -- every time I sat down they wanted to carry that chair out to the curb.   After they left I began driving around town returning the cable box, and other exciting chores like that til I realized that I was truly a danger behind the wheel.  I should have known that before I left, given where I found my keys.

Oh yes.  The key story.

I was pretty sure I had left them in the kitchen.  And was pretty pleased with myself when I walked into the kitchen and there they were, gleaming in the sun ...

in a glass of water.

...

I can't think of a damn thing to say after that.

...

I came back to the house, driving very carefully, read the instructions on my new air bed, inflated it, and collapsed.  I also left a message on my sister's voice mail.  I am not sure what I said or how I said it, but I got a call later from Judy in which she talked to me in a very gentle voice.  The next day I hit the road.

On the road

On country roads on my way to Route 80 in Pennsylvania, I was reminded of how beautiful the country is there, and how PA introduced me to the concept of microclimates.  Left my driveway, and there were snow flurries.  Went around a mountain, and it was raining.  Went around another mountain, into hail.  Around another curve, and all I saw was what a student of mine called Pennsylvania gray.  He was from the Carolinas, and said he had never known the sky could be that color.  I was sure that around the next curve I would find a cartoon spring, full of bright colors, Disney birds twittering away, huge flowers in primary colors and lots of butterflies.  Nope.  But I did see a castle.  Somewhere near Clearfield, someone is building a house.  Sort of a McMansion, except it is a McCastle, with lots of turrets.  PSUians, check it out.

I continued up and around and down, and eventually ended up that first night at my cousins' home in a rural area near Dayton.  They raise bees, know cats, and are some of my favorite people.  They sent me on my way with chocolate, champagne, and some of their own honey. Next entry: traveling with the cats, and how Terry and I got Frannie out from under the bed.

Musings, and an astonishing splurge

     You know that quote from Elizabeth Zimmermann, the "Knit on through the crisis" or something like that?  Apparently, I don't.  If I had a crisis that had me sitting in a waiting room, I guess I would, or had me housebound.  But crises that require action ... I don't knit at all.  I am in constant "go" mode at the moment, and have not knit anything on the Winter Eclipse second sock since my last blog entry.  I did do another 10 rows on the Free and Easy Pie-Wedge shawl but that was days ago. 

     But that situation has me thinking a lot about fiber arts.  Instead of focusing on minutiae of WIPs, or even on the next pattern-in-waiting, I have been thinking more creatively.  Packing meant touching every skein of yarn and every batch of fiber and every bit of fabric in the house.  And not in tandem with looking at published patterns.  My urge to spin has revived and I see more clearly the kinds of yarn I want to spin, and what I want to do with color, and even more importantly, I have gotten some glimpses of how I am going to do it.  And that brings me to the incredible splurge.

     Just as the move was becoming a reality, I got an unexpected refund.  I had enrolled in an ASL class this fall, that I had to drop, late enough, I thought, where I really didn't expect a refund, or not much of one.  Then a check appeared in the mail.  A check that had not been factored into planned expenses.  I could have just dropped it into the general funds -- we all know how expensive moving is, even with a moving budget from my new employers.  I kept deciding to do that... and then undeciding.  Because I have been drooling over a Majacraft Suzie Pro spinning wheel at my LYS for the past year or so.  And when I let Molly know, she said she had bought it before the dollar tanked.  'Cause the Majacraft wheels are more expensive now, because of the exchange rate.  And she could let me have it at the pre-tanking rate.  And with an additional price break, since she had been using it in the shop for demonstrations (and obviously with her shoes on.  Spinners will know what I mean.)

     I talked myself out of it twice.  Then I drove out there and bought it.  I brought it home and immediately packed it for the move.  But now, of course, I can't wait to unpack it and start spinning. 

     My first wheel, the Columbine, is a direct drive spinning wheel. That means one long band goes in a  figure-8 loop over both the flyer and the bobbin  to move flyer and the bobbin and create the tension AND pull the fiber onto the bobbin.  The Suzie Pro has what is called a Scotch tension -- two bands are used.  One goes from the wheel to the flyer, and another to the bobbin.  So adjusting the tension is different and there will be a learning curve.  From what I understand, the Scotch tension lets you separate "twist from pull" as they say on this very useful page.  For the non-spinners, that means that on the Columbine, the same mechanism that helps me put a twist into the fiber also pulls the fiber onto the bobbin.  The spinner can modify how quickly the fiber is taken up onto the bobbin, but I always feel I am battling the wheel's desire to pull it on!  On the Scotch tension wheels, those functions are mechanically separate, theoretically giving the spinner more control.  Theoretically. There will definitely be a learning curve before anything like control will be found.

     The wheel shows signs of use but not much.  There is some gunk on the pedals, from the bottom of shoes.  Like a lot of spinners, I tend to spin in my socks.  That didn't develop out of any concern about preserving the wheel (the Columbine is made of metal), but because it gives me a better feel of the wheel.  There is a rub on the wood where the top part of the Suzie folds down.  Otherwise, perfect. 

     A completely irrelevant aside:  three of the Majacraft wheels are named, respectively, the Millie, the Rose and the Suzie.  My grandmother's name was Rose, my mother's name is Millicent though she hates being called Millie, and my sister-in-law's name is Sue and she hates being called Suzie.  The most interesting (to me) of the electric spinners is called the Roberta (my full name).  And, hey, sis, the newest yarn from Schaefer is called Judith, and it is alpaca!  My sister Judy loves alpaca.  They haven't yet named anything after the dog.

     Moving timeline: The moving van comes Monday or Tuesday.  It would be nice to have an address in San Antonio by then. 

Sock!

      In the singular.  My moving-therapy sock #1 was completed just a few minutes ago.  Using Patons Kroy in Winter Eclipse, purchased for very little during, I think, a Herrschnerrs sale. Notice the other all important items sharing the top of the cart:

• Painter's tape.  Good for labeling items going into the freezer and anything else that needs a label.
• Two cat brushes, because of course Maggie will only allow herself to be brushed by the pink one and Frannie only tolerates the blue one. 
• A catnip mousie
• Pencils for marking pattern repeats.
• A knitting magazine.

Anyway, this sock is also a bit long.  That's the second pair in a row that ended up too long.  I am going to cast on right away for Winter Eclipse #2, and will try making that one shorter.  I am also casting on for sock #2 immediately to counteraffect the news that apparently the electricity in the house I want to buy in San Antonio was installed by monkeys.  I tried some alcohol but I think it's gonna take some sock knitting before I calm down.

      We interrupt this knitting blog for some cat cuteness.  First, as all folks who share their home with cats know, if you make a pile of something it requires a cat.  Moving, of course, produces lots of piles.  As I was trying to wash every piece of clothing I own, this resulted.   Maggie appears to understand that her role in the house is to produce moments of outrageously sweet cuteness I disavow in all other parts of my life.  Oh, and then she did this:

Yup.  Discovered ice cubes.  And nope, she sure wasn't supposed to be on the counter.

   Frannie is sharpening her skills of invisibility, except at feeding time and when she has to be brushed.

     Ok, back to fiber fun.  I figured out how to pack a spinning wheel today.  It included a big box, lots of towels, and whatever yarn was still lying around in that room.  And I may have gotten a bit carried away when I prepared for a couple of months of knitting while packing, moving, and unpacking:

Ya think? The yarn for 9 or 10 pairs of socks, a shawl, and 3 sweaters in progress.  I think that's about 2 years worth of knitting for me.  I think I should make it til I am unpack.  Face it, Rob, this is a security blanket in its raw state.  That would have been a cute moving project -- random skeins of things knit into a security blanket. 

Oops

      Yes, the package did say open carefully.  So ... I only used the scissor on the corner.  Hmmm.  This is the skein of Cherry Tree Hill Cherry Blossom sock yarn.  And yup, I had cut the yarn.

      I actually took this with amazing calm.  I began using the swift and the ball winder, thinking of what I might use the yarn for if I had lots of little bits of it.  I was also entertained by what the yarn looked like on the skein vs. what is looks like wound up.  To my pleasure, the ADD gods rewarded me for this bit of calm by letting me wind a center-pull ball that weighs 1.75 oz (out of a 4 oz skein) before I began to hit the short bits.  For some reason I was also  entertained and charmed by the tiny little center-pull balls that each short bit created.  Then, magic struck, and the rest of the skein was wound into a ball that weighs exactly 2 oz.  Since I make socks toe up, I will start with the smaller skein.  So wow, I didn't experience even a moment of horror and panic.  A whole new world of possibilities is opening up before my eyes.  Cheerful interest instead of doomsaying.  Gee.

     Of course, it might be because of the momentous, well, hugeness of everything else.  Last week I flew down to San Antonio to look for a place to live.  Forgot the camera.  Sorry.  But I really got to know the geography of the city and even, after some reality about what I can afford sank it, found a house I would like to own.  Another 1950s ranch, which I find kinda funny.  I grew up in the ultimate 1950s ranch in the very first suburban development of Levittown New York.  When I bought my current house, which is, in fact, a 1950s ranch, I told my dad that I was doing so well I was able to buy the house he had bought for $9000 in 1951.  So now, if all goes well, another (nicer than my current) 1950s ranch in San Antonio.  With a huge gorgeous room that I am not going to waste on the master bedroom (all I do in there is sleep, right?) but rather will use as a studio.  With French doors onto the deck.  And a huge walk in closet to corral all the yarn, fiber, spindles, looms....  So OK, huge-issue-to-deal-with #1: house hunting.  Actually that was huge-issue-to-deal-with #1.5 since getting through Cincinatti in an ice storm on my way down was huge-issue-to-deal-with #1.  That too was experienced with unusual calm and patience. Hmmm.

     So, huge-issue-to-deal-with #2 is of course selling the current house, which has to happen at least 15 minutes before buying the next one, right?  Lots of people are coming to see the house, and there might even be an offer on the table.  Keeping the house presentable has elicited all new kinds of behavior from yours truly: all the dirty dishes go right into the dishwasher.  The bathroom sink gets rinsed out every morning.  I sweep.  I vacuum.  And the truly astonishing result is that the house continues to look very nice.  I have been admiring the wood floors.  Who knew?

     And, I am packing, tossing, recycling, freecycling and selling.  Apparently this sort of huge overload of immensely focused work toward an urgent and immediate lifechanging goal is just what ADD likes.  Though I really want a nap.

     Winding the Cherry Blossom was a form of fiber therapy.  I also went to a new-to-me knitting group (Centre County residents -- a group of very nice people meet to knit on the couches in front of the tv in the Wegmans cafe every Thursday night).  One of the participants is someone I met on Ravelry, because she is an almost-PhD (defending next Thursday.  Go Lauren!) who was awarded a post-doc with the top guy in her field in ... San Antonio.  She'll get there later this spring.   I am still knitting the Patons Kroy Winter Eclipse socks.  But I want, as I said a few entries ago, to wind up a bunch of fancy sock yarns that I have into two balls each so I can just grab 'em and start knitting.  But... here's a question for you.

     The only other time I wound a larger amount of yarn into two skeins to make 2 toe-up socks at the same time (each sock on its own circular needle), I did it from one of those large balls that Trekking and other sock yarns come in.  That was easy.  I put the ball in a bowl and used the ball winder, occasionally weighing what was left in the original ball to get two even balls.  But the yarn I have now, like the Cherry Blossom, is in hanks.  The only way I can think of getting two balls of equal weight is to wind for a while, then take the skein off the swift, weigh that, and put it back on.  Lots of risk of tangles there.  The alternative of course, which would be much easier, would be just to wind one ball, weigh it before casting on, and knitting one sock with less than half the total weight.  I think that would probably be safer.  I have a real yen to knit some stoles and shawls but think I had better stick to socks during the weirdly comfortable chaos of the move.  Though of course once I say that I want to spin, and knit lace stoles.  So I will soothe the fiber yen by winding gorgeous extravagent sock yarns.  Pics to come.

Good ideas circulate, and, a next step

     I finally sat down to read the instructions for Fleegle's toe-up no-flap no-hassle sock heel.  I learned how to do the one I like from a knitting booklet that should never have gone out of print: Janet Rehfledt’s Toe Up Techniques for Handknit Socks. They are, in fact, identical!  Great knitting ideas have multiple sources.  I do like that Fleegle calls it a no-flap heel, since I could never figure out which part was supposedly a flap.  It is a great heel, easily adapted to fit well, and it involves increases, of course, rather than picking up stitches.

     And here is the last, I think, of the sock yarn bought in panic at the idea of not having simple knitting at hand during the packing-moving-unpacking-starting a new job phase of my life.  The gorgeous stuff on the right is SocKX, the Knitting Zone's own handpainted merino sock yarn.  The colorway is called Mysterious.  The mail also brought a skein of Cherry Tree Hill Sockitotme in Cherry Blossom.  I still have to wind several batches of sock yarn into two balls each, before the ballwinder, swift and scale are packed.  I have been so freaked out by having the stash packed that I have not yet put away the equipment.   Or figured out how to pack the umbrella swift.  Hmm, looking at the thumbnail of the swift, I might just need a long box.  But how the heck do I pack the spinning wheel?

     Before loading the fiber equipment onto the moving van, of course, I need to find a place to live.  Tonight I head to San Antone (as my new boss calls it) to look for a place to live.  Supposedly I will come home on Sunday to an official offer on my house here in PA.  That house, after two weeks of grueling sorting, tossing, donating and cleaning, looks pretty good.  So real progress is being made in this move.  Having the de-crapping of the house over with is an enormous relief.  And when I get back I will start packing in serious ways, which will involve more sorting, tossing and donating.  But I feel like I have gotten past the biggest obstacle in the move, and am getting into the fun stuff.  The cats, who have taken to hiding under my blankets, do not agree.